| The Dallas Chapter of the National Stuttering Association got together last night for our monthly meeting, and here are some highlights of what happened.
We had 13 people in attendance, including two new people (welcome Max and Sufian!), and we were ready to have a great time.
With Labor Day just around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to ask our members to introduce themselves and answer the question “What would be your dream job?”, and we discovered that our group could have criminal profilers, old hippie dudes that own record shops, and even music producers… but a good chunk of people would rather just travel, blog about it, and not work at all (can you blame them?).
Our announcements circled around our upcoming “Don’t Tell Me to Slow Down” 5K race to be taken place on Bachman Lake on October 6th. With just 5 weeks to go, we would like everyone’s support to make this a success and raise funds for our NSA Scolarship Fund. Luckily, we have a host of opportunities for everybody in the Dallas community to take part of it and make our event a success. Whether you are runner, or one of our many volunteers needed (registrations, manning water stations, course marshals, etc.) please head to THIS PAGE to read all about it and sign up. Please, we need all the power of the Dallas NSA!
And then we moved to our theme of the evening: “To Advertise or Not to Advertise; That is the Question for People Who Stutter.”
Studies have shown that People Who Stutter (PWS) who self-disclose/advertise to their listeners are perceived as more friendly, outgoing, confident and even more intelligent. Yet, even knowing that, some of us still find it hard to do. What are some of the advantages of disclosing? Disadvantages? Can we develop ways to advertise to others about our stuttering together?
After a brief introduction to the topic we opened the floor for comments and from some members we heard about the MaGuire Programme (click here for more info about it) and the importance they place on advertising and being open about stuttering with others. Meanwhile, others shared their experiences advertising in the past, and offered the lesson that “the more you do it the easier it becomes”. Finally, we tackled the very interesting concept that when your stutter is not that noticeable, or you are a covert, it can be even harder to disclose because of the fear of being perceived as somebody who is making a big deal about something so minuscule. This just helped exemplify the enormous variety of experiences that we as people who stutter can encounter.
Usually we break into small groups but this time the conversation was non-stop, so even though we had a good set of questions prepared, the room never stopped talking— who said people who stutter are quiet? In any case, we all had the opportunity to share some of our personal experiences, listen to other people’s stories, and learn from one another, and that’s what it’s all about.
At the end of the night, Dallas’ own Russ Hicks closed with a phrase that hammered in the value of not giving that much importance to what other people think about us when he said “When we are young, we worry about what others think of us. At middle age, we don’t care what they think of us. When we get old, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.”
Thanks everybody for joining us last night. |
